A discipline has reached a measure of maturity when it needs to organize its knowledge for those devotees who were not present at its foundation. This text answers that need, providing a basis for “physiologic” thinking about neoplasia and its treatment. Larger tomes—standard works in the oncologic literature—attempt to do this, but the focus of such texts is ultimately on staging and standard treatment.

Certain chapters of this book are noteworthy for their lucid writing and up-to-date information. Those on cell cycle control, tumor suppressor genes, viral carcinogenesis, growth-factor signal transduction, and cellular adhesion mechanisms are elegant in their synopses. Those relevant to molecular abnormalities in particular tumors (lymphoid, childhood, breast, colon, and lung) combine descriptions into a symphony for which the above mentioned mechanisms are the notes. The chapters dealing with radiation effects on cell signal transduction and monoclonal antibody therapy are unique in their completeness.